In case you missed theBlackBerry Jam Direct 10.3 webcast, there was one notable announcement pertaining to a topic that’s particularly close to every app developer’s heart (or wallet in this case)–New Ways of App Monetization!

While BlackBerry 10 has done a great job of providing monetization opportunities such as In App Payments andCarrier Billing,most developers often struggle to come up with an effective monetization strategy, especially, when it comes to offering content free to users. Having more choices of monetization (e.g. advertising, carrier billing, etc), and additional distribution channels (i.e.Amazon Android App Store) allow developers to drive more revenue within their apps.

The world of mobile advertising has been rapidly evolving and growing. RTB (Real-Time Bidding) and programmatic media buying are a big deal and getting lots of attention from advertisers and publishers within the industry. Smaato, one the leading global mobile programmatic ad exchanges(SMX) and Supply Side Platforms (SSP) delivers more than 70 billion ad impressions per month across 450+ million unique users around the world, and has grown tremendously:

Source: Smaato Q1 2014 RTB Report

In a nutshell, Smaato’s mission is to increase ad revenue worldwide for their app developers and partners. Smaato’s global monetization ecosystem connects more than 76,000 mobile app developers and publishers to 140+ DSPs and 100+ Ad Networks. Smaato’s launch of their Ad SDK for BlackBerry 10 presents is a fantastic opportunity for BlackBerry developers globally. If you are not familiar with RTB or programmatic media and advertising, take a look at the latest Smaato WhitePaper on RTB:

Support for multiple SDKs

With the recent Smaato announcement, BlackBerry 10 developers have the choice to either use Smaato’s Android SDK or the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK to monetize their applications. They also have a Javascript version which is not yet supported on WebWorks but can still be used to monetize mobile websites.

Cascades and Native developers have the choice of either using SSmaatoAdView QML component or accessing the API directly through C++. The SmaatoTest sample demonstrates both approaches. Refer to the Smaato Guide and API documentation for further details on the parameters supported by the SDK. Most importantly you can specify data parameters such as Gender, Age, Location, Tags, etc. The more audience data your app provides, the more attractive the value of your inventory becomes to potential advertisers.

Global Reach & Demand for BlackBerry 10 inventory

With 90 of the Top 100 Ad Age Brands bidding on Smaato’s ad exchange BlackBerry 10 app publishers now have the opportunity to participate in the programmatic marketplace and a chance to show advertisers that they have a highly engaged, relevant and valuable audience which will earn higher eCPMs and revenue. Download the SDK now and start monetizing your applications!

]]>http://devblog.blackberry.com/2014/07/smaato/feed/0smaato featureSarim A.smaato logoSmaato RTB insightSmaato Programmatic BuyingThe Homegrown Ad Networkhttp://devblog.blackberry.com/2013/09/the-homegrown-ad-network/
http://devblog.blackberry.com/2013/09/the-homegrown-ad-network/#respondThu, 05 Sep 2013 19:00:05 +0000http://devblog.blackberry.com/?p=16114/ Read More]]>There is a tremendous number of amazing BlackBerry 10 applications available for download from BlackBerry World. You know it, I know it, my Z10 definitely knows it, so how do you let your users know what apps you think they should try out? Advertise! As it stands today, the official advertising SDK does not have the ability to display house advertisements. House ads are created by the developer/vendor and typically displayed when no advertisement is provided by the official ad service. As you could imagine, this is a pretty big feature with some very interesting opportunities.
When I was attending BlackBerry Jam Americas back in May I met up with Brian Scheirer, a developer of some very popular BlackBerry 10 apps, who showed me an app of his where he implemented his own “house ad” service on the device. Brian is friends with several other BlackBerry 10 developers, so why not collaborate between devs and promote each other’s apps? This advertising idea is what I used as the basis for my latest sample built using Cascades: the Homegrown Ad Net.

It’s really not a nice looking calculator…

The sample includes a few files that make up the control, which acts as the advertising banner. By taking these files and adding in your own advertisements you now have a completely local ad service! At the moment the sample control can take images (PNG or animated GIF) with targets being either web pages or BlackBerry World, and all modification of what images are displayed is controlled by a simple XML file. Just add some advert images to the /assets directory, update that file with the image name, URL or app content ID, and then add the control to your app. As the developer you have full control in knowing what is displayed, at what size, and when a user clicks an ad. Link this functionality with some analytics and you’ve got a great way to determine which ads are garnering the most user attention. You can then tweak the ads themselves or their targets to make them more appealing.

To help you stock up your advertising inventory, I have started a forum thread where you can share your advertising creative (images) with the community and also grab other ads posted from your fellow BlackBerry 10 developers. This is an entirely community-driven ad service, so the more you contribute and share, the more others are likely to do the same, and the better the service should become for all developers.

A few things to note about this sample:

This control is not meant as a replacement for the official ad service; it is merely an alternative that may work for some cases.

Conversion rate cannot be directly measured. You are unable to determine for certain how many users clicking an ad resulted in actual app downloads. But, you could perform some baselining to see if the number of downloads increases after you begin advertising, and attribute those to the service.

This sample currently only supports applications and URLs, though additional functionality could be added (for example, click to BBM). If you have ideas on what features should be added next, please let me know by commenting on this article or firing me a tweet.

The Homegrown Ad Net sample on GitHub can be found here. I look forward to seeing some collaboration happening in the forum soon!